BEIRUT, March 12, 2009 (MENASSAT) — On Sunday (March 8) in front of Al-Madina (City) theater on the main street of Hamra in west Beirut, life-size figures stood painted in red, each bearing the name of a dead foreign domestic worker, along with her date of birth, date of arrival in Lebanon, and date of death.

More than half of the 95 cases of domestic workers' deaths in Lebanon are considered "suicide," and according to a 2008 Human Rights Watch report at least one domestic worker dies in Lebanon every week.

The Beirut demonstration, which took place on International Women's Day was planned by Lebanon-based womens rights group "Kafa," the Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTDA) and Human Rights Watch-Lebanon, along with a number of independent activists.

Organizers passed out a statement [above] both in English and Arabic that included information about foreign domestic workers in Lebanon, identifying the main types of abuse they live through.

It also included the goal of the sit-in which was to "call on the Lebanese authorities to protect foreign domestic workers" and "demanded their bosses to treat them as women who have rights that should be respected."
 
According to the statement, 15% of foreign domestic workers are beaten by their employers. The most common abuse found is withholding a workers' monthly salary.

More than half of the domestic workers in Lebanon work more than 12 hours per day, while one-third do not have a day off.

The vast majority of foreign domestic workers do not possess their own passports, which are confiscated by their employees upon arrival.

Women's rights not partial

Arlene, a participant at the sit-in from the Philippines, said she has not seen her passport for more than 13 years. Although Arlene told MENASSAT that she is relatively more comfortable at work than others, she said the practice of withholding domestic workers' passports is at the root of the suffering in Lebanon, since it prevents them from leaving or escaping when experiencing more violent forms of abuse.

At the March 8 demonstration, Arlene was holding up a placard in her native language that said "We are not for sale, we are not prostitutes, we work hard, we should not be abused."

[Ariene (left) at the March 8 demo in Beirut. © Saseen Kawzally]

A mother of three boys, two still in school and one working in Saudi Arabia, Arlene said that she went to the sit-in to express what domestic workers live through.

"Many of us do not receive our monthly salaries, and are deprived of a day off."

She also said that many foreign domestic workers are also deprived of basic needs like food.

"Domestic workers' rights are part of women's rights," said one of the signs written in Amhari, the native language of Ethiopia. Some 50,000 foreign domestic workers in Lebanon come from Ethopia.

Linking international woman's day with the rights of domestic workers was an important step to take, Roula Al-Masri, an activist with CRTDA, told MENASSAT. "Domestic workers in Lebanon are all women, and women's rights cannot be partial."

Al-Masri explained that CRTDA's future work aims to raise awareness among the few parties responsible for ensuring that foreign workers are granted full rights in Lebanon, including the employers, the workers themselves, civil society, and officials both in Lebanon and in the women's home countries.

Defending their own rights

Representative of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Lebanon, Nadim Houri, said that the action is, "A celebration of women, all women. It is a protest against the deaths of foreign domestic workers."

Houri said it is only the beginning of what is yet to come.

Future actions are being prepared in collaboration with more foreign domestic workers. According to Houri most of the women are afraid to appear in the media forcing workers to organize in public places such as churches or markets.

Houri emphasized the importance of forming an alliance of interested individuals and groups to pressure authorities to grant workers their rights. At the same time, an initiative is underway to form an organization of the workers themselves, to defend their own rights.

This action is the first of its kind in Lebanon, and occurs as human rights groups note a growing street-buzz about the "import market" of domestic workers from impoverished eastern African and south-eastern Asian countries.

Rights groups say that much of the abuse by the "importers" happens because of governmental negligence and bribery, both in Lebanon and in the workers' country of origin.